Busy (Gently) Doing

It has been a month of things breaking here, I have already mentioned that the washing machine, dishwasher and fridge need repairing.  The repairs on the washing machine and fridge have worked but the dishwasher is still not fixed, we sent off the circuit board to be repaired as my husband found that one of the microscopic parts on it was damaged, he had to use a magnifying glass on it to see the damage.  The board has now come back but it is still not working so back to the drawing board.  Thank you to all of you who offered to come and do my washing up for me in exchange for me cooking for you, please form an orderly queue, you are all very welcome to come and live with us.  

My watch fell off whilst I was changing the beds.  It took me a moment to realise that I was no longer wearing it, I then had to retrace my steps to work out where it had got to, that took a while, my mornings are often busy with movement.  When I finally found it I realised that the strap had broken, it is a metal one but as the watch is over twenty years old it had lasted well.  I knew that the strap had stretched a little over time but it seemed it had stretched more than I had realised.  We managed to source a new one that fitted, it was really strange not having a watch for a couple of weeks waiting for it to arrive.  You don't realise how much you use a watch until you don't have one, I know that a lot of folks use their phone and don't wear a watch but as I often don't have a pocket to put my phone in that option didn't always work for me.  

The whole family attended a weekend Explorer Scout camp over a weekend.  Cameron and Alice were taking part in the programme, Alice is not old enough to be an Explorer yet (they start around their 14th birthday) but as husband and I were helping out she opted to come too.  We were asked to bring our camping stove for the catering, we haven't used it for a couple of years due to COVID.  It was kind of inevitable that when we got it out a crucial washer had dried out and perished.  Luckily it was easy to get hold of a replacement which arrived in time for the camp.

We had a lovely weekend in the company of 22 young people and six adults.  We were running the canoeing on the Saturday, we had eight in four canoes.  It was a really sunny day which was unexpected as it was not what was forecast, the climbing group who were in another valley had a much cloudier day than us.  We managed 12km and had all our meals on islands on the lake we were exploring, the photos at the top are from that trip.

It was the second weekend of camping for me, I had spent an earlier weekend on a scout training course and had chosen to camp rather than share a dorm room.  I knew that I would get more sleep in a tent than sharing a room.  It was a very tiring weekend, a lot of sitting listening with periods of thinking.  My brain was overloaded by the time I got home.  I managed to lose my glasses at a home ed group I went to on the Monday and I could not remember what I had done with them after I had got out the car, my brain was completely blank.  It took a few days for there to be any space available.

I was lucky that my two weekends of camping were warm sunny ones which could not be said of a fund-raising day we had organised.  It was not for the Jamboree but something else, as I don't have enough fundraising in my life.  We were running a pop up cafe in a usually popular spot, on a very rainy day it is most decidedly not.  We managed to stay for four hours during which we had two inches of rain, we raised £50 which is not bad considering how few people were about.  We had a lot of cakes left over which we managed to sell to colleagues and friends raising another £50.  Thankfully that fundraising is now completed as we have raised all that we need, so we can now focus entirely on the Jamboree.  We had a slot booked to go back and run another pop up cafe this Sunday and I am watching the weather forecast very closely to see if it is worth going back for another go and raise some more Jamboree funds, if it is wet I will be staying at home.

Alice had some disappointing news when she found out that a friend that she has known since she was four is going to start school in September.  If you are new here then you may not know that Alice is home educated and is now thirteen, her friend is fourteen and has also never been home educated all her life.  It was a real blow to her, the friend was the last member of a group, who have been part of Alice's life for years, who has not headed off to school.  We were really hoping that the big changes she has had in her life over the past few years might have finally come to and end, but this is yet another one to navigate through.

I realise it sounds like it has been a month of disaster, disappointment and getting exhausted but there were more wonderful moments than the scout camp.  We spent a day out with my brother and his family exploring the woods and hills by a local lake. It was a lovely day out, my nephew is such fun company.  We took him on an adventure up a hill and through a wood, he loved it although I am not sure my brother would say the same.  

I have managed to find time to spend in the garden this month, it was starting to look a little over grown and was in much need of a weed/clear up.  I finally made it up to the jungle at the top of the garden and have started clearing it.  There are still a few seven foot high kale plants up there.  I am leaving them at the moment as they are all in flower and the bees are loving them.  I don't need the bed just yet so I am leaving them for the bees for now.  I finally placed a seed order, I realise that is quite late compared to some but there is little point sowing any seeds before May round here as it is not warm enough.  If I sow them earlier I end up with seedlings that I cannot plant out as it is too cold for them outside, I start most of them off in the polytunnel.  I have now have a tunnel full of seed trays and pots of wee plants that will be ready to go out soon, I am just hoping that the weather warms up and stays warm.  

This year we are having a rather cool spring, I am still wearing winter woolies.  We have the odd warm day but it has not been continuous enough for it feel like it is warming up.  The winds, which we get a lot of,  have also been mostly northern and eastern which are cold, so even when we do have those rare days of sunshine it feels really cool.  I am ready for it to warm up and hope it comes this way soon.  

The triffid like kale has been stripped of leaves which we have been enjoying in our meals.  It was lovely when it had warmed up just enough for this to start growing again.  It is a very hardy variety that copes with our cold winters but it does not grow when it is cold so I have to be careful about how many leaves I remove during the winter.  It is an heirloom variety which I have had in the garden for about five years now, it self seeds each year providing me with a continuous supply of plants hence my letting some of it run to seed and grow very tall.  I have had a good supply of small plants already growing for my next crop.

I also have a good supply of salad leaves in the garden now.  Some of it is wild rocket which self seeds all over the garden, the rest is oriental leaves such as mizuna, greens in snow, mustard leaves some of which has seeded from our own compost which we spread on the garden at the end of the winter.  Free salad leaves. What is not to love?

Crafting has moved from needle felted hearts to knitting dish cloths, embroidering needle cases and making beeswax wraps when the oven is on, all for fundraising.  I now have ten completed needle cases and twelve dish cloths.  I have paused with both of these for the moment as they had ceased to be enjoyable, they are for an event at the end of July so I have plenty of time to make more.  I have returned to my much neglected jumper which I have been ignoring since before Easter, I had to look at the written pattern to remind myself as it had been so long.  I am now a few rows away from finishing the body after which I can start on the arms.  I think it is not going to be a year of big knitted projects this year, that time will return again but is paused for now.

On a grey drizzly day we had a ray of sunshine celebrating Alice's birthday .  She didn't want a big party this year so we had a quiet day at home cancelling all our usual activities.  I had not thought about what I was going to do on the day until I woke that morning.  I decided to spend the time sewing, I am making a patchwork picnic blanket and managed to add three rows of patches to it, it has grown considerably, it needs another two rows to bring it to size I am after, then I need to work out a backing for it.  It is the first time I had had my sewing machine out for a long time and it was very over due.  I really need to make some more cloths that we use in place of toilet roll our current batch are pretty much past their usefulness.

It has been a full month, one filled with lovely things but rather tiring at times.  I find being busy at the weekend and then hitting the ground running on the next week quite hard work.  I have just about managed to cling onto my rest times although many weeks this was reduced to moments here and there.  I had many naps during the day a much needed recharge, they were a necessity not a luxury, I can thoroughly recommend them.  I can feel more of them being needed this month which is also looking pretty full.